The Good Egg gives Good Egg in Stoke Newington

UPDATE: We checked out the Dinner Menu at The Good Egg over the weekend – read below to find out what we thought.

If you’ve yet to venture up to Stoke Newington Church Street to visit The Good Egg then it best you know that their menu is inspired by the kind of simple food you get on the street and in the great old cafes and delis in the cities which the team spent their childhoods and travels. It’s all about ‘sharing’ – that word that seems ingrained in all new restaurants – but that just makes it easier to try more dishes…

The dinner menu is broken down into Breads, Dishes to Share and Sides and we kicked things off with the freshly baked cornbread with zhoug and honey butter (£4). The description got me even though I’ve never really enjoyed cornbread. I tend to find it always a little too dry and it never in the history of cornbread hasn’t crumbled into a pile of crumbs at the half way point. But this was moist and while it did crumble, it held together better than most. I loved the play between the sweet butter and the earthy zhoug.

Why get one bread when you can overstuff yourself with two? The hot flatbread with yoghurt, thyme and honey (£3) also hit the table and was demolished in under a minute.

The one meat dish we could agree on was the Za’atar fried chicken with fenell and apple slaw and chilli honey (£8.50). Perfectly cooked to a crisp with their version of sweet chilli sauce this really went well with the accompaniments that you’ll see below.

Not having a clue what the mujadara with green lentils and crispy onions (£7.50) actually was – this certainly is a tasty version of a Tel Aviv fried rice kinda mixup. Also if you put two different types of onion in a dish for me I’m only going to eat it more quickly!

This beast that has popped up on more restaurant menus in the last 2 months since Berber and Q made it into our East London FoodieHub Must Eats List (what a mouthful – and it is). Roast cauliflower with tahini yoghurt and pomegranate molasses is well roasted, has a great slathering of cream and juices to keep things tingling and interesting and perfectly for sharing. Though my heart will alway lie with Josh Katz’s version at Berber…

The Good Egg is the prefect place for a decent dinner – and even better should you have a vegetarian friend you need to impress. Though if you’re a meat eater like me, cave in to the dark side for just one night – otherwise you might leave with a bit of egg on your face.

It’s our second time lugging ourselves from the sleepy hollow known as SE London and schlepping all the way to Stoke Newington for brunch. That’s about an hour and a half, people. Melbourne is known for it’s brunch lines and I tended to steer clear of them incredibly well.

Not so lucky in Stokey. If you head up on the weekend expect a wait of about 45 minutes and even longer if your the unlucky group of four New Zealanders who were right behind us waiting for that one table of four to leave.

Decor-wise I like it. The open kitchen is inviting and you get to see the streamlined motion of the kitchen ocean. The produce on the counter gets your attention as you walk in and I ordered a sweet caramelised apple turnover as I walked to my table – such as the hunger had me in its death grip by this time.

The room’s a little bit like walking into someone’s larder with more produce on the shelves and the whitewashed walls. It’s very cosy especially with the warm glow of sunlight through the windows. They’ve made good use of the space considering the small size of the venue – especially with the coffee machine and bar area.

Currently we’re really liking the American-Israeli-Middle East inspired brunches that have popped up in the last six months. It works particularly well when it’s associated with brunch. Of note around London, there’s a few other players getting in on that action: Ottolenghi, Berber and Q (reviewed) and Oklava (reviewed).

I had my eyes all over the Reuben Croque Madame and boy did it hit the spot. Think Montreal smoked Hereford short-rib on Dusty Knuckle sourdough with mustard and a hearty slathering of béchamel. Meaty, gooey, ready goodness.

The other half officially said these are the best baked eggs in London. That means it’s better than Nopi – and that’s no mean feat. She feel the tomato and onion base wasn’t too acidic yet still flavourful. You know how sometimes it can be too much like just canned tomatoes that have been simmered down… Yeah not like that at all. Plus there’s coriander in there too which is always a winner. Add a generous serve of yoghurt on top to balance things out with a bit of creaminess – it’s a flavour explosion.

When you go to Nopi you get a serve of griddled bread – but it’s still just white bun that’s been toasted. At The Good Egg you get a small loaf of challah bread that’s warm like it’s come straight from the oven and it’s really fluffy. Perfect for sopping up the baked eggs rather than the usual toast that’s hard and sharp in your mouth. They’ve got the mix just right.

I love the marble counter and your ability to be able to sit and watch the chefs work. I’d be interested yo know what dinner was like. Might be a missed opportunity to not have a menu on the table anywhere who are using the restaurant exclusively for lunch right now. But yes, even with the mind boggling line, I’ll be back.

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“THERE’S an award-winning blog in Melbourne that does an impressive job of keeping everyone up to speed on just about every opening in the city, from food truck to grand diner.
The blog has a Twitter account where you can get a running feed on all sorts of stuff to do with food and beverage culture in the city on the Yarra.
The team behind the brand – for that is what it is, a brand – are social media masters. I dips me lid. They have presences on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram as well.”
- John Lethlean, National restaurant reviewer for The Australian and The Weekend Australian Magazine.
Welcome, and thanks for visiting Sharking for Chips and Drinks. We are a food and travel writer-photographer team, originally from London, now based in Melbourne.
We both have day jobs, but when we aren’t committed to the 9 till 5 grind we regularly contribute to a number of food and travel publications and websites in Australia and overseas, including:
Beer and Brewer magazine and The Ultimate Beer Guide
Melbourne Coffee Review handbook, website and iPhone app
Food and Drink guides covering London, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire
Elite Traveler magazine (US and Asia market luxury travel)
Gap Daemon website (international backpacker travel)
Currently we have a number of commissions in the pipeline. We have been featured in The Age’s Epicure supplement several times, most notably within a cover story focusing on Melbourne’s lunchtime dining scene. See for yourself here. After a very successful 2012, we started this year on a high when it was announced we had won the Expedia Blogger of the Year Competition – this means we have even more exciting adventures coming up in the next few months.
While we are currently living in Melbourne, we regularly return to our beloved London and have a very global view – this year will see us head to Italy, Japan and Korea in search of gourmet gems.